People Like Us
by darienne.emilie
Summary: A wintery walk in the park changes everything Hermione ever knew about Draco. Dramione fluff/serious. Set after the Battle of Hogwarts.


**I seem to get a lot of love on the Dramione side of Fanfiction. Well, I guess lots of people share my OTP! Haha, but nonetheless, the masses appealed, so the masses shall received. I wrote this over four weeks. I changed it three times and this is the result. It's not as romantic or poetic as most of my pieces strive to be. It's very blunt and forward, but I feel this is a more realistic take on how Draco and Hermione would finally end up together. I hope I did well this, but if I chose to do so, I will edit it accordingly. However, for now, please R&R! MCuh love xoxo**

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_Hermione Granger was dead-set against any idea or notion of attempting to extend forgiveness, let alone the hand of friendship to Draco Malfoy, the one boy who'd made her school years more miserable than they already had been. Harry had gently tried to reason with her, even Ron had tried. She was unmoved. Until that is, she recieved an Owl from Draco one week in November, six months after the War had ended. Ginny had been visiting that day and Hermione knew, all-forgiving Ginevra Weasley wouldn't let her pass it up._

_"Hermione Jean, if you ignore his Owl , so help you Merlin and Dumbledore I'll-" Ginny had chased Hermione through the house on Grimmauld into the sitting room, where Hermione had finally whirled around to face Ginny._

_"You'll what Gin? Curse my arse into oblivion? I said that I'm not doing it." Hermione pulled out her wand and started a fire in the fireplace. Hermione extended the hand holding the letter over the fire and was prepared to drop it, but Ginny grabbed her wrist. She had that blazing look in her eyes._

_"'Mione, he's changed and you know it's true. He's had a rough time since the war ended. He couldn't go back to school, he and his father haven't been able to work, and he can't even walk down a street without getting hell. Look-" Ginny pried the letter from her fingers. _

_"'Dear Granger, I've been thinking about the way our world has changed since the war ended. I know you may still hate who I was and probably won't give this letter a second look. But, if you do choose to, meet me on this Friday in Hyde Park at 4:00 pm. I hope I can repair your faith in me and make amends with you. - D. Malfoy'." Ginny looked at Hermione with a edge of sadness."'Mione, all he wants is to fix the damage he's done. He's not expect you to be his best friend or even his good friend. He just wants to make his past actions right. Give him that chance. Ron and Harry did, you should too!" Ginny was emphatic on the final word. Hermione sighed. Gin was right, she was always right about people, and she was right about this._

_"Fine, I'll go." Hermione said at last. Ginny handed her a quill._

"Normally I'm not one to take up people like you on such invitations," Hermione began, dry leaves crunching beneath her brown leather boots. She breathed out on the pause, igniting the air with white steam. "But I decided to take a chance on it." She walked beside a tall boy with white-blond hair and eyes as steely grey as the sky that loomed above, fingers shoved into his pants pockets.

"I'm glad you did, Granger." Draco answered mildly, kicking up dry leaves with his black shoes. A few were picked up by the wind and clung to the legs of his black slacks. He raised his gaze from the ground to look up past the tops of the autumn-touched trees. The small smirk that he maintained when he thought of something amusing appeared. He chuckled softly and dropped his head to look at his shoes, still kicking up leaves. "I still can't believe you even showed up today."

"I can't believe it myself." Hermione said almost snidely, as she pushed her wavy hair out from her face and readjusted the red knit beret fixed on her head. She replaced her hands deep into her navy pea-coat's pockets, feeling her wand drop out of her sleeve slightly. She knew she wouldn't be needing it, but she couldn't be that careful. But, in this deserted park, surrounded by trees and silence; everything seemed to be okay.

Draco spoke finally after a long silence of walking. "So you're not going to ask why I invited you on a walk in Hyde Park on Tuesday at 4:00 pm?" He cocked his head to look at her, a questioning smirk on his thin lips. Hermione kept her gaze straight ahead, shrugging.

"I was waiting for you to state your intentions." She replied. She stumbled, her shoelace had come undone. She knelt down and swiftly retied it, Draco stepped in front of her as he waited. As she tied it, her left sleeve came up slightly, revealing the faded scar tissue that spelled out her label: _Mudblood_. Draco looked away before she stood and dusted her black stockings off. "So you gonna tell me what all this was about?" She asked. Draco didn't look at her, instead he kept his eyes trained hard on the near-deserted skating pond to the left of the paved path. Hermione looked down and realized he'd seen her scars. _Guilt._ She thought. A shade of sympathy crossed her face and she experimentally stepped forward, reaching her right hand out to touch his cheek. He tensed a moment and relaxed the next as she brought her hand back, turning to look at her face again.

"I asked you here today... because..." Draco started, but it seemed the words were stuck in his throat. He exhaled slowly, then turned and began walking again. Hermione caught up to him again.

"Malfoy-"

"Can we stop the petty last name treatment, _Hermione_?" Draco snapped, looking at her exasperatedly. "I believe we've finished school now, so I think it's time we grew up a bit."

"Okay I will, Draco." Hermione was shocked, then she looked down to realize she'd grabbed his hand. She recoiled instinctively and looked down sheepishly. "Sorry."

"What in the bloody hell are you apologizing for?" Draco snapped, furrowing his brows. Hermione couldn't register the reaction properly. Draco's face was a flurry of emotions; flashing between anger, guilt, sadness, frustration, and a number of other expressions she couldn't read. He dropped his gaze to his shoes, shifting on the spot. "You have nothing to apologize for, Hermione." Draco reached a hand from his coat pocket and took hers. Hermione looked down, in a state of awe at this show of humanness by Draco.

He began walking again, not releasing her hand. She followed along, completely unable to react at his behaviour. It was getting dark now, it had to be close to six o'clock now, but Hermione wasn't concerned. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the forward-focused boy, the very same who'd spent the past seven years tormenting and angering her; who was now walking at her side in a silent park, clutching her hand tightly. He used his right hand to adjust the black beanie affixed on the back of his head, then cleared some stray hairs from his forehead.

Abruptly, he stopped. His grey eyes turned up toward the matching sky and he sighed, letting the air turn white. He closed his eyes. "The reason I asked you out today was closure. For both you and me." He turned to her and tilted his head down. She saw the tears threatening to spill over the edges of his lower lids. Hermione gapped at him.

"Draco, what closure? School is over. The war is over-"

"Not for me!" He shouted, dropping her hand. His eyes were wild and foreign now. He seethed through gritted teeth. "You don't get it! I've had a hell of a time since the war ended. People have given me and my family hell. I can't walk down a street without hearing the names and jeers. I can't go back to school, I can't get a job, and forget trying to find decent friends or a girlfriend! It was almost a miracle Potter and your boyfriend Weasel sought me out for forgiveness and-"

"RON is not my boyfriend." Hermione said flatly. Draco did a double take and his face softened. Nonetheless, he was not pacified.

"It was a miracle that they started standing up for me and my family. They've changed the minds of some, but not all." Draco's upper lip folded slightly into a sneer. "They made the Ministry, Hogwarts staff, our schoolmates, even bloody ordinary people believe we were innocent. But then... there's you." The last words trailed off into a whisper. The tears reared again. "I heard not a word from you. Never saw you, no letters or calls. I would have appreciated a bloody Howler even. But I never got a second glance from you."

"Draco, did you ever think that maybe I didn't say anything because you still thought me only as 'the Mudblood'?" Hermione asked, throwing her hands up at him. He was silent. "You spent years at school treating me as a lowly Mudblood; despite the fact I was the best in our class, only just about _you_, and the fact that I still showed your royal arse an ounce of respect regardless of that. Draco, YOU never gave me a second glance."

Draco's eyes were on his shoes again. "You have no idea."

Hermione was confused. "I have no idea of what?"

"You truly believed I thought that lowly of you. That you were a stupid, imbecilic mudblood that didn't deserve the time of day from someone like me; a pure blood. I thought you smarter than that, Hermione."

Hermione sucked in the harsh November air. Snowflakes were falling randomly, the sky was now black, with patches of purple from the clouds, and the wind had stopped blowing. The skating pond was deserted, others had left the park, but the only thing keeping the pair illuminated was the yellow glare of the path lamps.

"Hermione Granger, you were so busy being caught up with Potter and Weasel and your precious books to see the fault in your statement. By fourth year I'd realized my father's beliefs were in error. As much as I hated those beliefs, I maintained them for him and the other Slytherins. I'd be shunned and beaten, possibly even worse once my father forced me to become a Death Eater. I hated myself for lying about who I really was. But most of all -" Draco paused. He was crying now. Hermione felt her stomach knotting furiously. "I hated myself for not treating you right. You are so much better than me, so much braver and stronger. I was a coward, a liar, a sneak; a foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach. You have always been right about me apart from one thing: I glanced twice when you walked my way."

Hermione was so close to crying, her hands flew to her mouth, and soon enough the tear started rolling.

"I knew I couldn't hate you by the time third year had finished. By the time fourth year was over, I knew I was gone. My father would have murdered me had he found out I was harbouring feelings that weren't loathsome disgust for a Mu- someone like you. So I kept on lying, to myself, everyone, and twice as much to you. But you never actually seemed to doubt my intentions. Perhaps I can act well, though I sometimes let my armor down for you, hoping you'd figure it out." Draco looked into her eyes. "Or maybe it is truly because you never believed that someone like me could care about or even... love someone like you."

Hermione's eyes widened. She took the pause in his speech to recount every moment, every look, every encounter with Draco during their years. He'd never fought back when she'd slapped him during third year. He'd told Harry and Ron to get her to safety during the attack of the Quidditch Championship. He couldn't find a word, let alone an insult, to hurl at her at the Yule Ball. He'd left Harry and Ron alone when she'd sent him off. He'd done little things during the years that indicated he wasn't truly how he portrayed himself. But she'd ignored them as if they didn't exist, as though they never happened, it was all in her imagination.

"Face it, Hermione," Draco muttered, turning away but never taking his eyes off her. "I'm just a fool who had to go and fall in love with you." And with that, Draco began walking away. Hermione stood in the light of a lamp, trying to gather her thoughts, almost unable to process what had just occurred. Everything she ever knew about Draco Malfoy was not as it seemed. He had not only care for her and her well-being, but he had loved her and continued to love her. Hermione wanted to so badly unhear the words he'd said, but she knew that they were permanently etched into her brain. Words that were now controlling her legs as she started running after him.

"Draco!" She shouted, hurrying down the snow-dusted pavement after him. He kept walking. "Draco, wait!" She finally reached him and clamped both hands down on his shoulders. She whirled him around and in an instant, his hands were around her waist on her back. She clenched the tweed fabric of his coat at his shoulders. She searched his eyes for something, _anything_ to make what he said all lies. The part of her that still resented him was fighting to save the part of her that had lost all self-control and believed him.

Hermione decidedly silenced the former when she pulled Draco Malfoy into a harsh kiss. Draco was caught off guard but regain his composure, pulling her in tightly and returning the gesture. His lips were soft but the kiss was deep and whole. He wove one hand in her hair and gripped the other on her side. She held his face in her hands, holding him in place. He took it further, pushing his tongue through roughly - more like desperately - and began hurrying through kisses. Hermione was in disbelief, it was out of character for both of them to act this way, let alone with each other. Yet, she silenced the part of her that wanted this to be wrong by reciprocation. She released him slowly, hovering over his lips. "Does this make me a fool too?" She asked breathlessly. She looked up, his eyes glinting.

"Only if you can love a fool like me." Draco replied.

"I think I might be able to." She answered with finality. Draco laughed once gratefully and pulled her back in for another kiss, dropping his hand from her hair to her waist. Hermione wrapped both arms around her neck and pushed up on her toes. Time stood still in the moment and the snow began falling harder. Hermione broke away and looked up to the sky. "Think your mother and father will approve of this?"

"Personally, I don't really care at this time." Draco said emphatically, he too looking up to the sky. The snowflakes were still falling overhead, landing on their hair and their hands. "They won't like it much. Neither will Blaise and Crabbe. Pansy will be livid."

"I don't think Harry or Ron will approve. Ginny won't hate it, but she won't understand it." Hermione said, blinking snowflakes off her eyelashes.

"No one can understand people like us." Draco looked down again and she met his gaze with a grin. He began grinning himself. Draco lowered a hand from her waist and took her hand with it.

"Let's go." Hermione said, and with that, she and Draco walked the path to the street outside the park.

"Where to now, Draco Malfoy?" Hermione asked him, looking to him.

"Anywhere with you, Hermione Granger." Draco replied, looking to her.

"I suggest somewhere that no one who knows us is. I think we'd contract a lot of stares and questions."

"Anywhere, I don't care. I'm just glad to be with you." Hermione smiled and looked down.

"I'm sorry I ever judged you." She whispered, squeezing his hand.

"I'm sorry I thought less of you than you are." Draco muttered back, running his thumb over her knuckles. The pair took a step forward and apparated away.

_Sometimes people, who wanted nothing to do with one another, have a way of finding their way back together. No matter how many times their paths cross, despite their avoidances, they seem to fall into place. It only takes one of them to see something good in the other, and that's it. Love will find its way into even the coldest and most guarded hearts, even if those hearts are unwilling to take in the hearts that are meant to be with them. It seems on a cold November day, when the snow began to fall and the pond had frozen over in a forested park, that Draco and Hermione found themselves falling into place._


End file.
